


King Of The Castle

by ClothesBeam



Series: Many Bodied Nine [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Multi, Polyamory Negotiations, many bodied nine, pervasive AI
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2019-10-28 03:09:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClothesBeam/pseuds/ClothesBeam
Summary: Nine’s old line of work as an undercover agent comes back to bite him when one of his old targets goes to extreme lengths to get to the bottom of his mysterious disappearance, and sudden reappearance in android form. Nine doesn’t want Gavin to get caught in the middle of their misunderstanding, but that might be unavoidable.(This is a direct sequel to One Boyfriend With 200,000 Bodies.)





	1. I Love Cheap Thrills

**Author's Note:**

> You know I couldn't just leave Aleks' and Two's stories at that >.>
> 
> This is a direct sequel to One Boyfriend With 200,000 Bodies, so if you haven't read that, you should probably do so before reading this one. It properly explains the situation with Nine, his relationship with Gavin, as well as who all these OCs are.

Gavin folded his arms and grimaced when Nine held the tux out to him. “Please, Gavin?”

It was so gaudy. The material was a deep red and had some sort of shine to it. He knew it’d be conservative compared to the taste in fashion of the guests, but just looking at it made him grimace. Though that might have been in part because it was being held against the backdrop of Nine’s white and black tuxedo that was covered in criss-crossing lines of light, which reflected the current colour of his LED.

“I’ve told you before, I hate going to your nobby charity events.”

It’d only been four months since they’d started living together openly and freely, so he’d only actually been to one before this. But that wasn’t important right now.

“Oh come on, I need some human representation or the billionaires won’t stick around,” Nine teased him gently. “You know I’ve been organising this for a long time. I even got the caterers to put that rolled ice cream you like so much on the menu.”

Gavin huffed and folded his arms a little tighter. But they both knew Nine had already won before he’d even asked the first time. Gavin knew these events were important to Nine, since they helped fund the other work his bodies were doing. Outside of his businesses he ran social improvement projects in a range of different areas, from improving food production and distribution to the many strains of medical research he had going.

“What’s the main theme of this one again? Housing?” Gavin asked as he took the hanger with the tuxedo items on it and moved to their bedroom.

He didn’t know why they still lived in his shitty house. Part of him wondered if he should have just moved into the rebuilt warehouse. But he did enjoy his job, even if he hadn’t spent that much time actually doing it last year.

“Yes, that’s why I need to get the biggest housing market moguls there so I can guilt them into donating, or selling some of their properties on the cheap,” Nine replied. He closed the door behind them, even though they were the only ones in the house.

“Don’t you think that’s going to wreck the economy?” Gavin asked as he took his t-shirt off. He felt Nine’s hands slide around his waist to embrace him before he’d even removed it entirely.

“Oh no, wouldn’t that be terrible,” Nine murmured into his ear, sarcasm palpable. “People being provided with the things they need to live? How awful.”

“Careful, someone might come up with another excuse to come after you again,” Gavin teased. He went to remove his pants, but it was hard to bend over when Nine’s hands were already all over him.

“There’s still several hours before either of us need to be there,” Nine said, his tone more serious now. “We have time.”

It wasn’t like Gavin wanted to hurry on over there. He didn’t need Nine’s hand disappearing below the waistband of his briefs to convince him of that. But that wasn’t to say it was unwelcome.

Gavin made sure to moan his appreciation at Nine’s touch. He let Nine guide him over to the bed and undo his pants. Nine knelt behind him as he pulled Gavin’s pants down, and placed a line of gentle kisses along the back of his naked thigh as he went.

“Sit on the bed,” Nine said quietly. Gavin was quick to step out of his pants and obey.

Still on his knees, Nine shuffled over to him and pressed kisses up the inside of one of Gavin’s thighs as he slowly pushed them further apart. Gavin leaned back and supported himself on his hands. He was already getting hard, but then, Nine had become an expert at taking him from zero to one hundred.

Nine reached the join between Gavin’s thigh and body, and Gavin felt Nine’s smooth cheek brush against his cock. He automatically pressed his hips forward, but Nine ignored it and pressed kisses to his hip bone and stomach instead. Gavin curled his toes into the carpet as Nine’s lips and nose moved through his body hair.

Nine finally opened his eyes again and looked up at him. “What’s wrong?” he teased.

Gavin felt his face heat up. “I thought you said we didn’t have much time.”

“Don’t be silly, there’s always time for _this_ ,” Nine replied as he pressed a finger against the skin around Gavin’s entrance. Nine massaged the tense ring of muscle as he bent forward and ran his tongue across Gavin’s balls.

There was no denying he was at full mast now. Gavin pressed forward again, seeking more contact, even if it was only with Nine’s face.

Nine must have actually been in a hurry after all, because instead of continuing this torture he closed his lips over Gavin’s head just a short moment later. Gavin shuddered as his tongue circled his head, then pressed against his slit. He shifted his weight to one side so he could reach forward to stroke a hand through Nine’s hair gratefully.

But before he could make contact, Nine grabbed his wrist and held him back. He raised his head, mouth breaking contact with his dick for a moment.

“Don’t mess my hair up, I have to appear in public in this body later.”

That was the last thing Gavin wanted to think about right now, but he did as asked anyway. It was easy enough for him to twist out of Nine’s grip and take a proper hold of his hand. Their fingers interlocked and Nine squeezed Gavin’s hand gently, acknowledging the intimacy of the gesture between them.

The way Nine swallowed his cock after that made Gavin question the assertion that he was trying to maintain his appearance. But then, it wasn’t like Nine had to worry about flushing or choking on his dick if he didn’t want to. Nine met his eyes once again as he continued his pace.

Gavin had known he was done for the moment Nine had dropped to his knees. His back arched as his pleasure crested, and a long moan escaped his lips.

Nine neatly swallowed his load and pulled back. The colour and consistency of his outer dermal layer normalised again within a few seconds. Nine stood up smoothly, and removed the beginning of wrinkles from his suit jacket with just a few swipes of his hands.

Nine looked down at Gavin, watching him as he lay back, still slightly stunned and trying to catch his breath. Nine smiled and his LED flashed yellow for a few short seconds, his suit jacket reflecting the change.

“All right, we’ve had our fun. Time to get cleaned up.”

Gavin nodded slowly as he was pulled to his feet. He couldn’t seem to stop looking at Nine’s mouth.

He suspected it would hold his attention throughout the night.

* * *

 

Aleks took his forged passport from the airport security android. He was posing as a Ukrainian researcher who had brought his latest project to present at this year’s international android technology conference. Androids might have human rights in the United States, but that wasn’t necessarily the case elsewhere.

He was sure the local androids would be looking to make a point about their perceived personhood to the international research community, since everyone of relevance would more or less be coming to them. But Aleks wouldn’t actually be there to see it, of course. He would be too busy working to uncover the conspiracy behind his lover’s disappearance.

According to local police reports, Matvey had died in a car crash on the way to returning to his mother’s side. But Aleks hadn’t been able to find any evidence of this happening, other than the written words of the report and the obituary in the newspaper. In the end he hadn’t even been able to locate Matvey’s mother. And given Aleks’ government connections, that should have been an easy task.

More bizarrely, his web scraping algorithm had picked up an android that shared Matvey’s exact appearance on American television a few months ago. It had been talking about a charity event to be held in Detroit. Fortunately, it happened to be on the weekend before the conference Aleks was purportedly attending, so he had a cover story that was close enough to the truth to be convincing.

The mystery of Matvey’s disappearance had been eating at him for months. He couldn’t help but worry that Matvey had been silently trying to ask him for help before he’d left. Had he known this was going to happen?

Aleks still wasn’t sure what the implications of seeing Matvey’s face on an android were. Had the American government tried to cover up his kidnapping with an android, which had then deviated with the rest?

Either way, Aleks knew he wouldn’t be satisfied until he learnt the truth.

Aleks glanced up when his companion stepped up to the baggage carousel to retrieve his suitcase. The android’s internals were largely based on the specs Matvey had come up with, though the other forty test units on its network were still in the research facility back home. They’d stand out too much if he’d brought more than one. A couple more would be able to follow them over next week.

It had taken Aleks a long time to fill in the holes Matvey hadn’t gotten a chance to, and he doubted he’d done it as elegantly as the man would have if he’d been able to finish it himself. Aleks had fed the design algorithm pictures of Matvey’s face in an attempt to respect where the work had come from. But now that felt like a mistake, since it looked so much like him when it obviously wasn’t.

“Are you ready to leave, Aleks?” the android asked as it returned to his side.

“Yes, but speak in English from now on. The last thing we need is someone to notice we’re speaking Russian instead of Ukrainian.”

“Understood,” it replied in English, as ordered.

“Let’s head to the hotel, then we’ll see about getting into this event and confronting the android,” Aleks added quietly.

The android nodded and turned toward the exit, making his way to the taxi rank.

 _Its_ way to the taxi rank, Aleks had to correct himself. If he started thinking of the android as a ‘he’, he might start seeing it as Matvey.

And he really didn’t want to go down that path.


	2. One-Track Mind

Nine reflected that the only reason he was a good events manager was that he had enough bodies to do almost everything himself, and therefore keep an eye on it all. Not to mention, Gavin would probably have even less patience with it all if Nine had to abandon him periodically. As things were, Nine was able to stay near him while the guests tried to talk to him.

Gavin wasn’t exactly the most socially intelligent or extraverted person in the world. They’d wandered around the room and spoken to almost everyone who’d managed to get there at a reasonable time. But Nine could see he was struggling to even pretend to smile politely at people now.

Another of his bodies was wandering around the room holding a tray of drinks, and he started making his way over. He didn’t want his body that was acting as the host to leave the main function room.

“Thank you for coming again, Gavin,” he said softly, now that they had a moment alone. “You don’t have to stay out here any longer if you don’t want to. I’ll just ask that you join this body again when I have to see the guests out.”

The wait staff were mostly made up of his bodies that had faces different to what was considered typical for him. Ridiculous as it was, some of the people here might not want to be acquainted with him if it was obvious he was also doing all the grunt work at the event. Though he was sure at least one snob had recognised one of them from the club he had in New York.

Before that, most of these bodies had been undercover agents. But he’d stopped working for the government in all capacities after all that business with the virus and destruction or redistribution of most of his bodies. He didn’t even work with the DPD anymore, but that was more because he didn’t want Gavin to face career limiting disciplinary action for fraternising with a colleague.

Gavin nodded and rubbed his temple. “Yeah, ok, I can do that.”

When Gavin looked at the waiter that had stopped next to him with an almost empty tray of drinks, it seemed to take him a moment to recognise him. That wasn’t surprising now that he had Two to contend with as well. Nine presented the tray to him, and Gavin took the drink that’d been made as fancy as a stubby of beer could be, with a slice of lemon pressed onto the lip of the bottle.

“Shall we?” Nine asked as he put the tray under his arm and turned to face the door to the kitchen.

“Yeah, thanks,” Gavin said. He went to awkwardly nod a goodbye to Nine before seeming to remember they were one in the same and it didn’t matter. They’d started moving across the room by the time he asked, “This is one of the bodies that saved us in the end, right?”

“Yes, I had to cancel my espionage mission and fly back over from Russia for that,” Nine confirmed lightly.

They entered the kitchen through the discrete door at the edge of the room. Most of the staff in the room looked up from what they were doing and focused on Gavin for a moment. They were all Nine, except the one that was standing outside the industrial refrigerator door with the rest of his family. Two still made sure at least one of his bodies never strayed far from Tess and James.

“I didn’t know the kitchen was the secret meeting place,” Gavin commented as he and Nine joined them.

“Everyone knows the kitchen is where the real party is at!” Tess exclaimed a little too loudly. It seemed she’d been enjoying the wine Nine had bought for the occasion. Though she was sitting on an empty glass for now, thankfully.

James side-eyed her and folded his arms, but didn’t say anything.

Nine allocated less of his processing power to the conversation in front of him as one of his units wandering around on the main floor and cleaning up after the guests spotted an android that near on had the same face as the body he’d used to escort Gavin. This face was meant to be unique, specifically designed for his undercover mission. Why would anyone go to great pains to modify themselves to imitate such a tiny part of him?

Nine had scanned and identified all the guests as they arrived, to reduce the likelihood of a security incident. But he would have attached a special significance to this face if he’d seen it before. He wondered if this android was the only one who’d apparently managed to sneak in, or if there were others involved.

His various bodies throughout the function rooms scanned and accounted for all the guests again. He ended up with a return of two unknowns. The android he’d already noticed, and a human whose face was covered by dark glasses and a ridiculously high turtleneck collar. Though that was hardly the strangest fashion choice he’d seen tonight.

Back in the kitchen, Nine smiled at the group and placed a gentle hand against the small of Gavin’s back. Gavin glanced at him and his brows drew down when he felt his phone go off, correctly suspecting that Nine had just sent him something.

_An android and a human have snuck into the event. I need to find out who they are and if they pose any danger to the guests._

He also sent through an image of each of their faces as well. Perhaps Gavin would come up with something important that he had not.

“Ugh Nine, I thought you said we’d finished greeting everyone,” Gavin complained as he took a long draw of his drink. “Do I have to go back out just for one more person?”

“Going again already? We hardly knew ye,” Tess mumbled. “Sometimes I feel like we know Nine more than you,” she added thoughtfully.

The effect her words had on Gavin was immediate and obvious to Nine. His expression fell and his mouth pressed together. His heartrate increased slightly.

“I wish I could visit every day like he does, but there’s only one of me, remember?” His attempt at light-heartedly brushing off her comment wasn’t entirely convincing, but it seemed to be enough for present company.

“I know, I know,” Tess replied. “Come back soon!”

Gavin smiled reassuringly and waved as he followed Nine back to the kitchen entrance. “Can you go try and find out why the human is here, and who he is? I’m afraid one of my bodies approaching him will only escalate things, but I’ll see if I can corner the android in the meantime.”

“Are you really that worried?” Gavin asked as he looked down at his phone again. “This android looks so much like your body that went to Russia. What were you doing there anyway, drip feeding them your specs?”

Nine nodded. That was it exactly. Gavin could be astute when it came to things like this.

“Has someone maybe figured that out, then?” He paused to scoffed for a moment. “Maybe you should give Siobhan a call? This sounds more like her wheelhouse now.”

It was true the team had probably filled in the holes he’d left in the design and managed to make something that worked, even if it wasn’t exactly the same as Kamski’s work. And he had advertised this event pretty heavily because he’d wanted the press to be interested in the work it’d fund.

But he still wasn’t sure why the android would have his, or ‘Matvey’s’, face. As far as anyone knew, that part of him had been human and was now dead. Even if it was some sort of tribute to his work, wasn’t that a bit morbid?

He and Gavin were about to step into the main function room again, but Gavin immediately moved toward the edge of the room. Nine could tell he was thinking hard, trying to line up what he did know into a hypothesis.

“You told me once that you sometimes used sex and intimacy to your advantage during missions. Was this one of those cases? I mean, it’s a bit of a leap, but…”

Now that Gavin had put the idea in his head, it did seem it could potentially match the known facts very well. Someone was bound to question why a body hadn’t been found sooner or later, and why wouldn’t that person be Aleks? He hadn’t exactly closed things off properly there.

“I knew I kept you around for a reason,” Nine teased. Gavin rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help looking somewhat pleased with himself. “Aleksandr Sokolovsky was one of the researchers in the facility I infiltrated. Since homosexuality has only really recently become somewhat acceptable in that part of the world, it would have been more awkward for me to reject his advances than go along with them. I didn’t leave Russia on the best terms since I was obviously in a hurry to get back.”

Gavin nodded slightly while he listened. “All right, I’ll see what I can dig up,” Gavin said as he started moving across the room. He managed to look purposeful enough that no one stopped him to talk, but not so much that it looked like he was up to something.

Nine got his body that was acting as the host to go over to the android of interest. Another possibility was that someone had made an android with the face he’d used to advertise the event in order to hijack things later in the night.

Nine slowed in his movements as he saw Connor was speaking to the android of interest. He was glad he wasn’t the only one who had noticed something was wrong.

‘ _Who is that?’_ Nine asked over the network.

 _‘I don’t know, I just noticed a face that’s meant to be unique on an android that obviously isn’t on your network,’_ Connor replied silently. But it was hard for him to hide the fact they were talking when his LED flickered yellow every time he sent or received a transmission. After everything, Nine doubted Connor would take well to the suggestion that he should upgrade his processor.

Nine continued his approach, scanning the android and trying to learn as much about him as possible before he got there. His hair was styled to obscure his right temple, but Nine could construct the rectangular strip above his right brow that seemed to act in place of the circular LED. The other android looked up at him, and the light changed from having one small part of the rectangle blinking green to a third of it.

Nine wondered what other creative changes had been implemented to fill in the gaps he’d purposefully left. Did he operate on a network of multiple bodies as well?

“Oh hello there! I’m sorry I missed you, I don’t think I saw you come in,” Nine said magnanimously as he came to stand next to Connor. “What’s your name?” he asked as he held out a hand to shake. Or to probe, depending on how things developed, he supposed.

The green bar shrank back to where it had been before, and pulsed steadily. “I don’t have a name, as such, but I’m the UU beta version 2.4,” the android replied. The voice synthesiser didn’t work as well as the artificial vocal cords, throat and tongue that CyberLife androids that had originally been made for people-facing roles tended to be deployed with. It gave his voice an odd yet easily recognisable quality.

“What do you mean you don’t have a name? You’re allowed to choose one for yourself,” Nine said, reluctantly giving up on the handshake gesture. He decided to be more direct. “Do you need help?”

He glanced away quickly. “Don’t be silly, I’m just here to be presented at the international android technology conference being held next weekend. The researcher working on me is an admirer of Mister Kamski’s work.” The android’s stance became narrower and he lifted a hand to touch his cheek near his mouth. “Perhaps we are not here on formal invitation, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.”

“You aren’t deviant?” Connor interrupted. “I could provide your program with a push.”

He began to reach out to connect, but the android swiftly stepped out of range. His bar filled to the halfway mark, the light graduating to a shade of orange.

“That really isn’t necessary. If you’ll excuse me…”

But when he tried to turn around, Nine was already waiting for him in the waiter body that had been with Gavin earlier. The indicator on his forehead only shot across further when the other android recognised the face as his own.

“I think we still have a few things to talk about,” Nine said quietly.


	3. One-Track Heart

Gavin looked down at the photo on his phone again and rolled his eyes at the person they thought was Aleksandr’s clothing choice. But then again, he’d been having that reaction to people all night, including himself after what Nine had done to him.

Gavin had been reaching when he’d tried identifying the intruder’s motivations. Some kind of spying or terrorism involving an android that looked like one of Nine’s bodies would probably have been the more likely scenario given the guest list. But ever since he’d found out about Nine’s mode of operation in other missions—that was, that seducing people wasn’t off the table—part of Gavin had been paranoid something like this would happen.

Gavin spotted the guy sitting alone at one of the tables in the smaller function room Nine had booked along with the main one. Gavin had already spotted two of Nine’s bodies in the room, so he felt relatively secure about going straight over to talk.

But he still wasn’t quite sure how he should approach the situation. Since Aleksandr had gone to such pains to cover his identity from facial scans, Gavin could only assume he’d be difficult if he tried to take an indirect approach.

“Mister Sokolovsky?” Gavin began once he was fairly sure he’d entered the man’s hearing range.

He looked up at him sharply. Gavin noticed his hand twitch toward the steak knife that had been left on the table by the guests who had eaten their meal here earlier.

“Sorry? You must have the wrong person,” he said with a thick accent.

Gavin paused in his approach, but wouldn’t be intimidated into leaving that easily. He decided a modified attempt at an interrogation room tactic would probably be safer.

“There’s no need to be coy. You’re here because of your research partner, aren’t you?”

He looked up at Gavin properly this time and examined him carefully. He frowned when he didn’t recognise him. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. My English isn’t so good.”

Gavin didn’t know the guy’s English language level. For all he knew, Nine had always spoken to him in Russian. Still, he decided to bluff.

“I know you can understand me just fine. I can probably answer your questions about his disappearance more easily than you think. Leave the knife alone and I can take you to speak directly to your old partner, if you want.”

It was hard to see his features through the glasses, but Gavin was sure Aleks had narrowed his eyes at him with suspicion rather than confusion. He withdrew his hands into his lap, sans the knife.

“According to the authorities, Matvey is dead. But somehow his face is now being used by an android.”

Gavin slouched slightly with relief when he realised there really wasn’t much of a language barrier. “I’m going to assume you’re not referring to the one you built?”

Aleks glared at him again. “How do you know all of…?” he trailed off, seemingly unable to be bothered with finishing asking the question. “Fine, just take me to whoever you think Matvey is, then.” The implication that he’d figure out who Gavin was later seemed to hang in the air.

Gavin tilted his head toward the function room’s exit before taking half a step toward it. Aleks stood and followed him. They walked side by side down the corridor, and Gavin couldn’t help but notice one of the hotel’s cleaning staff must have been by and left a supply closet open.

Before he could turn his attention back to Aleks, Gavin was shoved toward it. As he staggered to the side he tripped over what he realised was Aleks’ carefully positioned foot.

Gavin managed to recover and roll back to his feet in the confined space, but not before Aleks swiftly followed him inside and snapped the door shut behind them. In the crack of light that was coming in under the door, Gavin watched him toss the dark glasses aside, useless as they were to him now.

“One thing I think we really need to clear up first,” Aleks began as he cracked his knuckles. “Are you FBI or FSB?”

Somehow Gavin didn’t think he’d accept ‘neither’ as an answer.

* * *

 

“Why is Aleks here?” Nine demanded softly, at a volume just loud enough to slip under the general noise in the room without being inaudible to his target. “Don’t bother denying it, I can see some of his concept work on you.”

The android closed his mouth as he aborted whatever he’d been about to say. His hands flexed at his sides. His indicator flashed orange for a moment before dropping back a bit. Something changed in his expression when he met Nine’s eyes this time. He guessed the other android had just received some data.

“He’s trying to find out what happened to the man behind our face,” the android said softly before turning toward the exit.

Nine shifted subtly to block him again. Connor assisted him, able to read and predict his movement since the programs they used to determine these things was so similar. The android looked a little desperate now.

Nine narrowed his eyes at him. Could he be reacting to Aleks sending him silent messages? If the android was so worried, maybe Nine should be concerned about the possibility that things hadn’t gone well for Gavin. He wasn’t able to see him with any of his bodies anymore.

“Don’t cause a scene,” Nine warned the android standing in front of him as he sent his other body, the one with the face of interest, to investigate.

The android looked like he was going to ignore him, but Connor flicked at his jacket, subtly revealing the firearm he had strapped under his armpit for just a moment. The android hesitated while he watched Nine’s other body leave the room.

Nine tracked Gavin’s phone signal to the cleaning supplies. He slowly reached for the door handle, giving himself time to listen and attempt to accurately assess the situation. He thought he heard Gavin swear harshly, quickly followed by another thud against something wooden.

Nine focused on making his skin cover the LED on his forehead, and adopted the subtler protocols that made him appear more human. He’d tell Aleks the truth, once he was sure the man was ready to listen to it. Nine owed him that much.

But there was no telling how he’d react to the news once Nine managed to get him to believe him. He had to ensure Gavin’s safety.

When he pushed against the door it opened inward and creaked slightly. Both of the humans’ attention snapped to him immediately. Somehow Nine wasn’t surprised to see they’d been more or less evenly matched, and had ended up in some sort of stalemate with their hands at each other’s throats.

It was easy for him to adopt the tone and mannerisms he’d used to form his persona for the mission. He spoke in Russian, wanting to look and sound as close to what Aleks would have remembered as possible. He had to believe Nine was the real Matvey before he could reveal the truth.

“Aleks, what are you doing?”

Aleks froze, but then, he probably felt like he’d seen a ghost. Gavin managed to sidle out of his grip and retreat to the back of the supply closet. Aleks ignored him and took half a step toward Nine, looking him up and down incredulously.

“Is it really you, Matvey? What’s going on?”

Gavin looked between them nervously. Of course he had no idea what either of them were saying.

Nine called Gavin’s phone, which was thankfully on silent. Gavin raised an eyebrow at him as he slowly pulled it out, so as not to alarm Aleks while he was already highly strung. Gavin turned the speaker volume right down before holding the phone to his ear.

Nine approached Aleks and took a gentle but firm hold of his upper arms. But Aleks didn’t seem to be intent on fighting anymore, or going anywhere at all.

“That’s hard to explain, and I’m not sure if you’d believe me,” Nine said even as he conveyed a message to Gavin.

‘ _I don’t think he’s going to take this well. Just slowly make your way out of here and get to safety while you can.’_

He could see Gavin wanted to reply to that, but knew he couldn’t. Instead he just adopted a grim expression and started taking a few casual steps toward the door.

Aleks reached out to touch Nine’s face, feeling for breath and examining the texture of his skin. Nine allowed this since it was distracting him from what Gavin was doing quite thoroughly.

“Matvey,” Aleks murmured, “are you about to tell me you’ve been a government plant this whole time?”

“That’s only half of it, I’m afraid,” Nine replied lightly. He only needed to stall a little longer and he would be able to get Gavin away from them.

But just as Gavin reached the door, Aleks looked directly at him. “Are you about to tell me that is your partner in crime?”

Gavin paused, able to tell he was being spoken about from visible context clues. He looked ridiculous with his phone pressed to his ear and his lip trapped between his teeth in concentration. Gavin’s eyes met Nine’s. He was clearly trying to convey his confusion and uncertainty.

‘ _Keep moving, I’ll distract him.’_

“Matvey never existed. There was no car crash or sick mother. In fact, I’m not even human,” Nine added. All his negotiation and social interaction programs were telling him it was too soon to reveal that, but he was more concerned with just holding off any volatile behaviour for a few seconds longer.

“Then clearly you’re not the Matvey I came here to find,” Aleks said calmly, right before his fist struck Nine right in his thirium pump.

Nine doubled over as warnings clamoured to make themselves known. It wasn’t nearly enough to stop him from functioning, but it did give Aleks time to push past him. Fortunately Gavin had already disappeared into the main function room with one of his other bodies.

“Just hear me out,” Nine implored. “I can explain.”

“ _He_ knows something,” Aleks replied. He turned and made his way into the function room before Nine could convince him that Gavin only knew what he’d told him.

This couldn’t be allowed to affect the event or his guests’ safety. Nine had to cause some kind of distraction. His body that was dressed as the event host announced the start of the first charity activity a little early.

He had to make sure no one else became involved in all of this.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic/series(?) has a channel on the Detroit: New Era discord server. Server link: https://discord.gg/GqvNzUm


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